Business Process Mapping for the Public Sector

Benji Crooks, Marketing Director at Public Sector Network, spoke with Mustafa Ghulam, transformation and process specialist, ahead of his Business Process Mapping for the Public Sector course. Ghulam explains why structured process mapping is essential for public sector teams, how it brings operational clarity, uncovers inefficiencies, and supports continuous improvement and compliance across government services.

Mustafa Ghulam: Yeah, it’s quite a unique course, Benji, in a sense that the course is geared towards public sector business processes. So in an organisation, how business processes are documented and mapped. And the other part of the course is focused on business process improvement.

Now the key learning outcomes, I will note three different key learning outcomes. I think the first component is attendees get to learn about business process mapping, various techniques, how to undertake business process mapping in public sector, number one. Number two, they get to learn about best practice, what are some key best practice or better practice tips. And number three is focused on business process improvement, so various business process improvement methodologies and techniques. So it’s quite an intensive course because you get to learn a lot within one day.

Interviewer: Perfect. Just taking a step back as well, who would be the ideal core audience for this course?

Mustafa Ghulam: To be honest with you, anyone and everyone for this course, because we all deal with business processes within any organisation, and in public sector. But if I have to just point a few people who might be really good fit for this course, it is your executive level one leaders. They definitely will have a lot going on within their own teams where they can benefit from business process mapping.

People who work in information technology-related roles, they will be quite suited for that. The titles such as business improvement manager, business improvement analyst, business analyst, director of particular operational function, those kind of roles I think will be ideally suited. But in summary, as I mentioned, I think this course is essentially suitable to anyone, everyone, because we all deal with business processes.

Interviewer: Absolutely. Are there any practical examples you can share with us of the kind of exercises that participants go through?

Mustafa Ghulam: Yes. So Benji, there are two.

So the course is not only a slide deck of information you can just read online, because then you really don’t need to attend anything. You can just do it. The course is actually quite hands-on and interactive. So there are two different types of exercises we go through.

There’s a group exercise which we do as a group. So business process mapping is not really only about drawing a business process. It is about how you get the information, how you present that information in a business process, and how you use that information. So that exercise is all about getting the information, how you get the information, and how you present it. And we do it as a group.

Now the second exercise is individual and we do it towards the end of the day. It’s like a recapping or a rechecking exercise. I don’t want to call it an assessment because it’s not an assessment as per se, or an exam as per se.

The first one is generic. We pick a generic business process and we brainstorm about that business process, the one we will be talking about or choosing. And the second one is quite related to individuals’ roles. So within the organisation, attendees have an opportunity to pick one particular business process, and then they map that particular business process.

And what happens is this, they actually do get to get feedback from me and from the wider group, using the collective wisdom of the group, plus from me. So in some ways, this course enables people to not only learn, but by the time they go back to their job next day, or maybe the same day, hopefully not, they actually get to have something tangible they can use in their job.

Interviewer: Absolutely, and I feel like this is really touching on my next question. So my next question was going to be what kind of skills can someone learn and then take away and apply to their role immediately after the course?

Mustafa Ghulam: Thank you. So I think it goes back to the learning outcomes. So again, people get to learn how to do business process mapping. But when I use the word mapping, quite often it could be confused, as I mentioned earlier, as just documenting the business process. This is more than that. This is actually how to get the information, how to present that particular information. So that is definitely a skill people get to learn.

The other part where we spend quite a bit of time is also business process improvement. So business process documentation or mapping is one part of the puzzle. You need to do something with those business processes. That’s where business process improvement comes into play.

We also go through a case study, which we talk about, and in that case study attendees are actually able to see how business process mapping can lead to business process improvement. So those are some key skills I think people get towards the end of the day.

Join Mustafa Ghulam on the online training course Business Process Mapping for the Public Sector. In this practical training course, you’ll learn how to visualise and analyse core processes, identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies, and design optimised workflows that support transparency, accountability, and measurable performance improvements.